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Thursday, 16 March 2017

One of the Guinea pigs - Hershey - has had pneumonia. If there's anything deliberately designed to make you feel helpless, it's illness in babies and animals. You can't explain to them what's happening or why you're doing things. They just look at you helplessly, and it's terrifying. However, Hershey - after a stay in hospital and a vat of antibiotics - is on the mend and is probably thinking he's onto a good thing now, what with the best of the best hay and the freshest of the fresh vegetables!

The humans seem to be recovering too. It was like a conveyor belt of bleugh. So we knew what was in store by watching the one who got 'it' before us.

And let's not forget 'the fall'. It was quite a sensation. Busby, I forgive you, but next time I'm holding onto a lead rope and the horse bolts, I hope I remember to LET GO OF THE ROPE.

Saturday, 21 January 2017

It's winter here. Normally I'm not here. Normally I miss the winter, while I languish by a pool or wander through the Disney parks or take a road trip, all in the warm sunshine. But this year I'm here. In the winter. And this year I've caught a cold. With a cough. A hacking cough that has kept me awake for three nights straight. I'm getting dizzy and not a little confused on occasion. So I've been comparing winter here with winter there.

Here

There

Here

There

Here

There

Here is family. There is a bunch of friends. Here is noise and chaos and jobs to be done. There is calm and order and laziness.

Thursday, 15 December 2016

Between flights I always forget completely how uncomfortable air travel is.

At the start of a holiday, it's an inconvenience to be overcome, in order to get to a destination. So no matter how tedious and bone-crunchingly (or more to the point muscle-tighteningly) uncomfortable it is, there's always the holiday to look forward to.

Coming home is slightly different. Yes, there's home and family and friends and pets to look forward to. But it's a night flight for us these times. And even with extra leg-room, three seats each to ourselves, head-phones, blankets, pillows galore, books, and music, nothing (nothing) can dull the engine noise (it roars, like white noise gone horribly wrong) and screaming babies.

But oh what memories.

And what to look forward to - home.

And Christmas.

I think I can lie down and try and sleep now. Unless the dulcet tones of the captain get through the racket to announce turbulence and seat belts.

Saturday, 10 December 2016

Much of Florida is only about a metre above sea level. This means that wherever you go, you're not far from a lake. In fact I've just googled "how many lakes in Florida?" and the answer is over 30,000. Thirty thousand! On 3 million acres of land. Lake Okeechobee, not far from here, is the second largest lake in the whole of the United States. So, when we decided to go to Lakeland, a town only thrity minutes drive away, we knew we were in for a treat.

And yes there were lakes galore. But first we headed for Florida Southern College. An amazing place. Many of the buildings were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and some weren't actually built until decades after his death. But they are all true to his vision and design, well ahead of his time.

This is a wall of one of the chapels he designed for the college. This inner wall echoes the outside walkways that he installed so that students were under cover for much of their day.

And yes, they are quite low. No basketball players here, I would surmise!

The window in the smaller chapel is striking,

and let's in a lot more light than the 'windows' in the other.

I found the whole experience really fascinating, and I rather wished I could have been a student here.

But what about the lakes? Well, I could imagine living in one of the houses around Lake Hollingsworth. I was so impressed by them that I forgot to take photographs! It would be very tempting to buy one, if I won the lottery. However, I understand that in order to win, you have to buy a lottery ticket. Hmm.

We had lunch on the banks of one of the lakes. And we had plenty of company.

I must say, they were very polite birds. No squawking. No pestering. No pecking. Just pathetic, begging looks!